Eighty-two-year-old Samatul Mandal from Ula village of Howrah district belongs to a family of farmers who have been growing a rare variety of indigenous rice or folk rice variety (FRV)Rani Akandafor the past four generations. The rice is very tasty, slender-grained and light, says Mandal, as he shows us the familys ancestral land of about […]
The Rajasthan government today said it will never allow commercial cultivation of GM mustard even if the Centre approves it, maintaining that its traditional varieties are giving much better yields than the GM crop. Biotech regulator Genetic Engineering Appraisal Committee (GEAC) has already approved a proposal on genetically modified (GM) mustard variety developed by the […]
Gurugram, July 13 (IANS) Haryana Agriculture Minister O.P. Dhankar on Thursday said that a seed bill will be introduced for the first time in the next session of the state Assembly. Dhankar has instructed his departments officials to prepare a seed bill on the suggestions given by experts in the second session of the two-day […]
Addressing a mammoth gathering of farmers and cooperators in the tough terrain of Leh and Ladakh, IFFCO Managing Director Dr US Awasthi stressed on the need of turning the area into a hub of organic farming. Promising to use every resource at IFFCOs command Awasthi said we should take recourse to traditional method and desist […]
Till 2012, 60-year-old Vanita Sahebrao More used to spend INR 40,000 (USD 620) every year to cultivate soybean, sorghum and cotton on seven acres of land in her village in drought-prone Nanded district in Maharashtra. The district is part of Marathwada, which is infamous for crippling droughts and farmer suicides. This changed five years ago […]
New Delhi, July 12 (IANS) Industry lobby Assocham on Wednesday urged the government to lower the Goods and Services Tax (GST) rates for select agricultural inputs, failing which use of chemical fertilisers will get a boost. Higher GST in this segment will directly promote chemical use, thereby leading to an increase in green house gas […]
By Dr Vandana Shiva Climate change talks are often centred on renewable energy. Nobody talks about making farming renewable. Around 50 percent of global greenhouse gas emissions are due to chemical farming. It emits carbon dioxide from the burning of fossil fuel required to make chemicals. Their origin goes back to World War II, when […]
Millet golgappas, tumdee potato parathe, kundru chutney and mahua murukus may sound exotic but they travelled a long way from farm to plate at the Ashadh Mela in Delhi recently. In an attempt to help the native grains of the country make a comeback on our plates, Bhoomi Ka, an organic food campaign and INTACH […]
The Vegetable and Fruit Promotion Council Keralams (VFPCK) efforts to promote organic farming under the Participatory Guarantee System – India (PGS), a decentralised organic farming certification system of the Union Ministry of Agriculture and Farmers Welfare, has gathered momentum in the district with ten farmers local groups registered in just over a year. Each group […]
This year, if the merger between the agrochemical giant Bayer in Germany and Monsanto, the American seed and pesticide manufacturer, goes ahead, “BaySanto” will become the largest supplier of seeds and pesticides in the world. This would result in a market concentration, and concentration of power, in the agricultural sector. Miseror think that is dangerous […]